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Maine · Public charity

Bowdoin College

It is the mission of the college to engage students of uncommon promise in an intense full-time education of their minds, exploration of their creative faculties, and development of their social and leadership abilities in a four-year course of study and residence that concludes with a baccalaureate degree in the liberal arts. The full…

$72M
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
5
Itemized grants FY2025
5
Organizations funded FY2024
20%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Itemized, FY2025
$686k
The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025
$21,900
Largest grant, FY2025
$606,230
Organizations funded a year
3 to 11
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$3.6B

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations Bowdoin College funded were first-time grantees, receiving 4% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementHousing & ShelterSocial ScienceRecreation & SportsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving5$686k0%
FY20245$576k20%
FY20237$612k43%
FY20225$565k20%
FY202111$679k64%
FY20207$544k57%
FY20193$788k0%
FY20185$217k40%
83% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Public Benefit$4.1MCommunity Improvement$192kPhilanthropy$136kCivil Rights$98kReligion$65kArts & Culture$60kHousing & Shelter$43kCrime & Legal$38kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Town of Brunswick$4,120,5429n/a
Brunswick Downtown Association$166,85097%
The United Church of Christ$50,0001n/a
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People$44,93310%
United Way of Mid Coast Maine Inc$43,00051%
Tedford Housing$42,50021%
Resources for Organizing and Social Change$36,983122%
Maine Inside Out$25,22613%
American Legion Auxiliary$25,0002n/a
Brunswick Development Corporation$25,0001n/a
Show all 20 grantees
All grantees of Bowdoin College by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Town of Brunswick$4,120,5429n/a
Brunswick Downtown Association$166,85097%
The United Church of Christ$50,0001n/a
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People$44,93310%
United Way of Mid Coast Maine Inc$43,00051%
Tedford Housing$42,50021%
Resources for Organizing and Social Change$36,983122%
Maine Inside Out$25,22613%
American Legion Auxiliary$25,0002n/a
Brunswick Development Corporation$25,0001n/a
Creative Portland Corporation$25,000122%
Council for Economic Education$25,00010%
First Parish Church$15,0001n/a
Six Rivers Youth Sports Inc$10,00011%
Pejepscot Historical Society$10,00013%
Smithsonian Institution$10,00010%
Senator George J Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute$10,00010%
Dempsey Center for Quality Cancer Care$10,00010%
NAACP Empowerment Programs Inc$9,10210%
NAACP Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc$7,25610%

Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($142k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Bowdoin College supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBrunswick Downtown Association: $166,850 over 9y, 7.3% of budgetNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People: $44,933 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUnited Way of Mid Coast Maine Inc: $43,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetTedford Housing: $42,500 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetResources for Organizing and Social Change: $36,983 over 1y, 22% of budgetMaine Inside Out: $25,226 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetCreative Portland Corporation: $25,000 over 1y, 22% of budgetCouncil for Economic Education: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSix Rivers Youth Sports Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetPejepscot Historical Society: $10,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetSmithsonian Institution: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSenator George J Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDempsey Center for Quality Cancer Care: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNAACP Empowerment Programs Inc: $9,102 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNAACP Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc: $7,256 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 15.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Maine Community Foundation IncME26.5× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Sam L Cohen Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · The Alfred M Senter Fund Trust · Maine Health Access Foundation Inc · John T Gorman Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Onion Foundation · Td Charitable Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Bowdoin College with peer funders

About Bowdoin College

How much does Bowdoin College give?
Bowdoin College reported 5 itemized grants totaling $685,630, out of $71,645,000 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 11 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Bowdoin College fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (83%), Community Improvement (4%), Philanthropy (3%).
Who are Bowdoin College's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Town of Brunswick ($4.1M), Brunswick Downtown Association ($167k), The United Church of Christ ($50k).
Does Bowdoin College fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Bowdoin College?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Maine Community Foundation Inc, Sam L Cohen Foundation, Elmina B Sewall Foundation.
Where is Bowdoin College based?
Bowdoin College is based in ME.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 24 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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